Escalators or moving walkways comprise a circulating step belt for the transport of persons or objects and a framework. The step belt is bounded along its conveying length on each side by a respective balustrade, which is arranged on the framework. A circulating handrail is arranged at such a balustrade along its terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,186 shows an escalator with a balustrade and a deflection wheel for deflecting a handrail. A wheel mounting for mounting the deflection wheel is fastened exclusively to the balustrade so that the balustrade itself has to be of sufficiently stable construction in order to able to accept the forces acting by the deflection wheel on the wheel bearing.
GB-A-678454 shows an escalator with a balustrade and a handrail. The handrail is guided or deflected in a deflecting region of the balustrade by means of a deflection wheel. The deflection wheel is mounted on a wheel mounting stay. The cladding of the balustrade is fixed to this wheel mounting stay and is carried by this wheel mounting stay.
The illustrated solution has the disadvantage that such a wheel mounting stay has to be of extremely solid construction so as to enable faultless operation of the escalator or the moving walkway. For this reason the balustrade has a relative high width in the conveying direction of the escalator, which also leads to an increased requirement of the escalator for space.